Premier League News, Daily Ticker: July 19

Former Tottenham manager Martin Jol is preparing to return to the Premier League in order to fill the managerial post at Fulham left by Roy Hodgson.

The Dutch manager, who won a Dutch Cup with Ajax in his only season with the club, was fired as manager of Tottenham in 2007 despite nearly leading the London club to the Champions League. Jol then spent a couple of years at Hamburg before moving to Ajax.

Fulham chose Jol over former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and current USA manager Bob Bradley. Jol, who is reportedly leaving Ajax because of the club’s financial problems, could be in place in time for Fulham’s friendly against Halmstad on Thursday.

Jol also spent time in England during his playing career as a member of West Brom and Coventry City and might have a substantial transfer budget after Fulham’s owner Mohamed Al Fayed sold Harrods for nearly £1.5 billion.

Arsene Wenger Unhappy With New England Player Rules

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has slammed the new rules put in place by the FA requiring more English players be included in EPL squads.

According to The Mail’s Paul Bentley, “Premier League squads this season must contain a maximum of 25 players aged over 21, at least eight of whom have to be ‘home-grown’ — that is, players trained in England or Wales for 36 months before the end of the season in which they became 21.”

The native Frenchman has been famous for his heavy reliance on foreign players and will have to overhaul his roster to meet these new requirements, which are backed by England manager Fabio Capello.

“I’m not too much for rules. What is important is quality,” said Wenger. “The Premier League is the most watched league in the world and you only get that if you focus on quality.”

13 Responses to Premier League News, Daily Ticker: July 19

Wow. That new rule is not painfully obvious anti-Arsenal discrimination or anything. Apparently, because England looked like a bunch of schoolgirls against the rest of the world at this year’s World Cup, they feel the need to enact this stupid rule which singles out foreigners in general, and Arsenal in particular.

Ah the usual Arsenal attitude, everyone is out to get us. Part of the problem for England is the young kids are not getting the playing time they need to develop and help the English National Team. It’s far from a stupid rule, it will help develop English Youth and give them a chance to play, if you think that is stupid then that shows you don’t care about youth development.

it’s not like this is a new thing, the chairperson of EVERY (including the ARSEnal) EPL club voted yes for this rule a few years ago. they did it so early to allow each club to prepare their roster for the start of this rule.

Sorry for not being clear/misunderstanding a Mail report. Fulham has not been sold. Fulham’s owner, Mohamed Al Fayed, sold his company Harrod’s for a boatload of money and will infuse some of that money into Fulham. So they haven’t been sold but will have more money.